Schmalz Suction Spiders Move Heavy CLT Panels

Boards, sheets and cross-laminated timber are unwieldy and heavy. HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald relies on vacuum technology from Schmalz to ensure that the workpieces are transported effortlessly and automatically to their place of use in production. Several suction spiders not only move boards in production, but also components weighing several tons.

Products used in the application

Features of the success story

Industry	Wood
Workpiece	Boards
Product group	Suction Spiders Vacuum Gripping Systems
Type of handling	Automated handling

With Schmalz

2,5

tons

Lift capacity

The customer: HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald GmbH

HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald GmbH, founded in 2021, specializes in cross-laminated timber (CLT) and is based in Seewald. The company produces 20,000 cubic meters of CLT per shift from local spruce and Black Forest silver fir on 15,000 square meters of covered area. Clients use the products to realize timber construction projects throughout Germany, Switzerland, France and the Benelux countries. HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald GmbH started production in September 2022 and currently employs around 40 employees.

The challenge

The company manufactures solid wood panels from at least three cross-laminated layers of softwood on a fully automated system. They are between six and 32 centimetres thick, up to 3.5 meters wide, and can be up to16 meters long. The challenge for HolzBauWerk was to move these heavy, bulky wooden components efficiently and precisely during production. Conventional manual handling was time-consuming, inefficient and prone to accidents. Therefore, the company was looking for a solution to optimize the transport and handling of the large wooden elements while ensuring the safety of its employees. HolzBauWerk was able to overcome this challenge by using suction spiders and vacuum technology: the automated, precise method of material transport increased efficiency and minimized the risk of injury.

Everything went smoothly from the first contact in spring 2021 through project planning, the start of operations and live operation.

∼ Jörg Kübler, Managing Director HolzBauWerk Schwarzwald GmbH.

The solution from Schmalz

HolzBauWerk uses several suction spiders. The company dries all the wood itself and sorts it according to visual and technical criteria. The first suction spider, SSP, with five area grippers FMHD, lifts and stacks the boards in the buffer store. An external vacuum generator supplies the gripping system with vacuum, while integrated sensors ensure process reliability. The FMHD area grippers can also handle heavy and rough workpieces without disrupting the gripping process. The integrated vacuum reservoir and the maintenance-friendly design ensure efficient operation. An suction spider FMHD destacks the board layers for CLT production. After quality control, any defective boards are removed, cut to size and glued into single-layer panels. Another suction spider FMHD then places the single-layer boards in the buffer store for the CLT press. After each sheet is placed, a layer of adhesive is applied to ensure the connection before the next sheet is placed. A third suction spider then places the single-layer panels alternately lengthwise and crosswise on top of each other in a buffer store. An identical suction spider loads the CLT press and applies a layer of adhesive after each sheet has been placed to ensure the connection. The hydraulic CLT press then presses the single-layer panels made of longitudinal and transverse lamellas into cross-laminated timber at high pressure. This creates a perfect, wafer-thin glue joint and absolutely dimensionally accurate, straight sheets. After the block press, two ceiling crane suction spiders take over the handling of the CLT sheets. They guide them through various stations, including a reversing table, a wide-belt sanding machine and a CNC machining center that manufactures ready-to-install house construction elements. The final vacuum suction spider SSP-HD picks up the cut sheets in the center once they have been processed. It is specially designed for heavy loads and can carry up to 2.5 tons. With its suction plates SPU, it can even handle slightly rough surfaces. The SSP-HD lifts the cut elements and the resulting cut-outs out of the machine using a vacuum. Suction cups that are not in use are automatically inactive to prevent leakage. HolzBauWerk is highly satisfied: The custom-made vacuum gripping systems ensure efficient production and have been increasing quality and employee satisfaction since September 2022.